Make my Sweex router send me emails under script control.
(this can send alerts when something goes wrong)

I discovered ssmtp which can send emails from my old Sweex router under openwrt

install it -
ipkg install ssmtp_2.61-2_mipsel.ipk

ssmtp requires two files to be configured -

etc/smtp/ssmtp.conf

#
# /etc/ssmtp.conf -- a config file for sSMTP sendmail.
#
root=myname@mysite.co.uk <- my usual email address
mailhub=smtp.mysite.co.uk <- the smtp server of my email provider
rewriteDomain=mysite.co.uk
hostname=mysite.co.uk
FromLineOverride=YES
AuthUser=mail_login_name
AuthPass=mail_login_password

etc/smtp/etc/revaliases

# sSMTP aliases
#
# Format: local_account:outgoing_address:mailhub
#
# Example: root:your_login@your.domain:mailhub.your.domain[:port]
# where [:port] is an optional port number that defaults to 25.

root:mail_login_name:smtp.mysite.co.uk

Create an email message and save as a text file
email_message.txt

From: <myname@mysite.co.uk>
To: <myname@mysite.co.uk>
Subject: testing Sweex Mail again

Message here after a blank line

 
cd to the folder with the message then type this to send the message -

cat email_message.txt | ssmtp -v myname@mysite.co.uk

The | character says "pipe the output generated by cat to my email address"

I now intend to write a script that checks the level of the food in my chicken feed hopper
and sends me an email alert when it gets low (but only once per day!)